1. Be sure you are in the classes best suited to your abilities. Sometimes students get lost in large classes when they could learn more rapidly under closer supervision. Some students are routed into the wrong academic track. It's a matter of knowing where your particular talents lie.
2. Consult the teachers or the school counselor about your problems with grades. Discuss the need for testing to see if there could be a learning disability which is creating barriers for you. You may find that a reading dysfunction or difficulty in the way you process information or even poor eyesight is at the root of the problem.
3. Consider some kind of tutoring to help you catch up. This might be done by joining a "remedial class." The word remedial comes from the wordremedy. It doesn't mean that you are deficient or incapable of learning. It means identifying the problem and then working toward a solution. Or you might need to find a private tutor--someone who is trained to recognize and deal with learning problems.
4. Plan ahead. Don't wait until the last minute to study for a test or do a report. Establish a goal for when you want the assignment to be ready. Make that goal a few days before it is actually due. Then if it's ready on time, you can relax and if you hit any snags, you have a little extra time to work on it.
5. Establish a routine or pattern of studying. Set up a daily schedule for yourself. For example, when you return home from school, you might take about thirty minutes to relax and then start on your homework. Even if you don't have a specific written assignment, you can work on some reading or even a book report for extra credit. Do this for about an hour. Then take a break for about ten minutes. Study for another hour and then break for dinner. After the evening meal, you might want to visit with your family or watch TV for a while, but you should spend about thirty minutes to an hour in review of what you have already learned. Then relax for a while before bedtime. If you do this regularly, it will be easier to study for exams and to prepare as you go along.
6. Break up the assignment into manageable units. The thought of doing a whole project or of studying for a major test might frighten you or even make you so anxious that you cannot concentrate. But if you divide the project or the material to be studied into smaller parts, then you can digest it more easily--something like cutting a piece of meat into small bites rather than stuffing the whole thing into your mouth at once.
7. Outline the material that you are studying. Don't memorize the entire book or chapter for the test. Instead, make a list of the major points, names, places, dates, and ideas. Learn to associate one with the other so that they will flow smoothly into your mind at the time of the test.
8. Form a study group. Studying with friends can be distracting, but you can also get some encouragement and helpful tips from others. Besides, a task is always more fun when you work with others.
9. Give it your best effort. Education never comes cheap and learning isn't always easy. But it's worth the effort and sacrifice it takes. You don't have to be a straight "A" student, but you do have to do the very best you can with all the abilities you have.
10. Seek the inner peace from God that can facilitate your studies and your performance. He's not going to do the work for you. But once you have prepared yourself, ask him to help you have the sense of well-being that will allow you to meet the challenge of study, of testing, and of life itself.
